According to multiple reports, South Korean authorities have ordered crypto exchanges OKX and KuCoin to freeze funds connected to Terra founder Do Kwon. In total, the platforms froze more than 5,000 BTC or about $60 million at the current market price.
As reported by Bitcoinist, South Korean authorities launched an investigation against the founder of Terra (LUNA) and the company behind the cryptocurrency, Terraform Labs. Authorities concluded that Kwon allegedly violated the country’s securities laws and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Things escalated yesterday when the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) joined the effort and issued a “Red Notice”, an arrest warrant that can be enforced by members of the police organization, against the founder of land
Do Kwon denied there was an arrest warrant and said the following about his whereabouts, suspected to be somewhere in Singapore after moving his operations from South Korea:
I’m writing code in my living room (…). Yeah, like I said, I’m making zero effort to hide, I go for walks and malls, no way no one on CT (Crypto Twitter) has come across me in the last two weeks.
Now, law enforcement agencies have moved to cripple Kwon’s financial resources. According to a Bloomberg report, the founder of Terra began moving funds linked to the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) after the Interpol red notice.
The LFG is an entity created by Terraform Labs to protect the peg of the falling algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST). These funds were allegedly controlled by the community, without the control of Kwon or other members of the company.
South Korea steps up efforts to arrest Terra founder Do Kwon
A report from CoinDesk Korea claims that the funds were moved from September 15th at 18th, as mentioned, about 3,300 transferred to KuCoin and about 1,950 to OKX. Bitcoin funds were transferred in 4 to 5 transactions.
OKX was initially reluctant to cooperate with the fund-freezing orders, but now appears to be working with South Korean authorities. An exchange representative said:
We have frozen the relevant account and intend to do our best to cooperate with the relevant law enforcement agency as necessary.
According to the report, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office and the Securities Crimes Joint Investigation Team suspect the funds are part of a money laundering scheme that will allow Do Kwon to avoid the arrest warrant.
At the time of writing, Do Kwon remains at large and his current whereabouts are unknown. South Korean agencies are “securing new recruits” to step up their efforts to arrest Terra’s founder.
